99-year-old doesn't believe in 'can't'

Published: Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 4:44 p.m.

“There is no such word as ‘can’t,’ ” Elsa Moegle Jennings says. “It’s all in your mind. If you want to do something badly enough, you can.”

Jennings should know. She’s been doing one amazing thing after another for a long time. On Dec. 29, she will turn 100 years young.

Jennings, who is a summer resident of Hendersonville, has been a lifelong trailblazer and remains active today. She was one of the first women students accepted to The Juilliard School (then called Institute of Musical Art) and in 1936 was the first woman harpist to graduate from Juilliard.

An only child, Jennings was born in Jersey City, N.J., to two musicians — her father was a violinist and her mother a pianist. Her father died when Jennings was only a year old, and he had a dream that his daughter would become a harpist.

“My mother bought me my first harp when I was 9 years old,” Jennings recalls. Later, she received a grand harp, “the big one,” and it took both her mother and her to move it. “It’s much easier now because they have wheels on them,” she observes.

Jennings made her professional debut in 1934 at age 17 at Steinway Hall. Tickets to the performance were $1.65.

But as a child, she was also active in sports, enjoying horseback riding, fishing, swimming, boating and archery.

“I still love to swim and fish and boat,” Jennings says. “Yesterday, I was in the lake in my little outboard boat and the engine wouldn’t start to get me back to shore. So I rowed myself back.”

After graduation from Juilliard,

Jennings headed the harp department at Marymount College in New York, then began touring. Her early experience and training with symphony orchestras gave her a broad vision, led by conductors including Leopold Stokowski, Alexander Smallens and Albert Stoessel.

“I toured with Michael Strange, John Barrymore’s former wife and a poet, for a year and a half,” Jennings recalled. Among her many concert performances, Jennings played at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and at the White House, by invitation from Eleanor Roosevelt.

Her mother traveled with her. For 20 years, they toured the country, clocking 200,000 miles while living in an Airstream trailer and traveling in Jennings’ reconfigured car so that her concert harp could fit into what was once the back seat.

“We would stop at a gas station, get gas, and park overnight, all for one dollar,” Jennings remembers, laughing.

Marriage, travel abroad

While fishing in Delray Beach, Fla., Elsa Moegle (pronounced MOO-glee) met Victor Jennings. They both loved to fish and lived near each other. She was 37, he was 67. They were married in 1951.

“We had 25 wonderful years together,” Jennings says with a smile.

He was an inventor of looms for the commercial textile industry. She quit touring about a year after their marriage. They traveled around the world, beginning with a honeymoon in Bermuda.

“There was a hurricane, so our honeymoon was cut short,” she recalls. “But we visited every continent together including every country in Europe and in Africa.”

While keeping their home in Florida, the Jennings moved to Asheville in 1961, where her mother lived until her death in 1972. They moved to Hendersonville in 1971. Victor died seven years after their move here.

Jennings still lives in the stone home they bought. Her neighbors call her “the go-go girl.”

Jean Perdue, a friend of Jennings’ through their church, says, “Elsa is amazingly alert, active and interested in everything and everybody. Without a doubt, Elsa is the most interesting person I know.”

Perdue adds, “I count my time with Elsa a blessing. Elsa is small in stature, being less than 5 feet tall, but oh so very big in every other way. What an inspiration she is to all who are fortunate enough to know her!”

Until two months ago when she had a stroke, Jennings lived by herself. Twelve days after having the stroke, Jennings boarded a cruise to the Bahamas. And she takes no medications, she states proudly.

She also maintains a home in Florida. “I spend my winters down there and my summers here,” Jennings says.

She is a member of the Society of Four Arts in Lantana, which affords her plenty of opportunities to dress up. “I really love sequined clothing,” she confesses.

And she still travels. Her favorite places to visit include Africa, Indonesia, China, Japan, the Middle East, Mongolia, Thailand and Burma.

Friend Margie Richards wrote of her, “We love Elsa. We miss her when she’s gone, and she’s always on the go!”

Future trips include a two-week visit to Canada in the early fall and a journey in early 2014 to Dubai to celebrate her century mark. She will celebrate her centennial birthday in Florida.

Secrets to longevity

To what does Jennings attribute her longevity? “I have good genes,” she responds immediately. “My mother died in her 80s, and my Swiss grandparents died in their 90s.”

“I eat good food, too,” Jennings says. “Fruits and vegetables, fish and meat. Last year, I weighed 157 pounds, but I cut out lunches and now I weigh 103 pounds.”

Last year, she attended Camp Dogwood with the Lions Club, where she enjoyed horseback riding, fishing, boating, hiking, tubing and playing wee-tee golf. She received the Silver Star award at the same camp in 2011.

Her final piece of advice to living a long, happy, active life?

“You must not be a pessimist,” she says. “Don’t worry; just take care of it when it comes.”

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